


Sauntering Vaguely Downward

by kingdomfaraway



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Gen, Hurt, Hurt Peter Parker, Hurt/Comfort, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Protective Tony Stark, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-10
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-18 17:13:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29861385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kingdomfaraway/pseuds/kingdomfaraway
Summary: Tony had just finished helping Morgan with her homework and had taken two steps towards his lab when several things happened at once. A blaring alarm sounded throughout the cabin, an indication that someone was in trouble. FRIDAY cut through the alarm to announce that it was Spider-Man who required assistance. Added to the voices, was Pepper yelling out Tony’s name from the living room.Pivoting on the spot and heading towards the living room, Tony called out. “What’s going on FRIDAY?”“It appears Spider-man is engaging in battle with a new foe. Karen has alerted me that he’s taken several hits. His condition is not critical at this moment but I advise providing him with assistance as soon as possible.”
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 6
Kudos: 69
Collections: 2021 Irondad Sprint Event





	Sauntering Vaguely Downward

**Author's Note:**

> Title borrowed from Good Omens, because I couldn't resist. 
> 
> Prompt I used was Plummeting. :)

Tony had just finished helping Morgan with her homework and had taken two steps towards his lab when several things happened at once. A blaring alarm sounded throughout the cabin, an indication that someone was in trouble. FRIDAY cut through the alarm to announce that it was Spider-Man who required assistance. Added to the voices, was Pepper yelling out Tony’s name from the living room.

Pivoting on the spot and heading towards the living room, Tony called out. “What’s going on FRIDAY?”

“It appears Spider-man is engaging in battle with a new foe. Karen has alerted me that he’s taken several hits. His condition is not critical at this moment but I advise providing him with assistance as soon as possible.”

Arriving in the living room he saw Pepper staring at the TV, Tony followed her gaze. The TV painted the grisly picture that FRIDAY had started to report to him. He recognized the bright red and blue of Peter’s suit immediately, but it was mostly a blur. The kid was moving fast and once the camera panned to the right, he saw the reason. Two very large mechanical claws, with sharp pinchers on the end reaching out and attempting to grab him.

The camera wasn’t very steady and it took several minutes before it turned enough to bring the owner of the mechanical claws into view. 

Tony recognized the face immediately. 

“Is that Otto Octavius?” Pepper questioned, looking to Tony for confirmation. 

“FRI?”

“Facial recognition indicates that Pepper is correct, sir. However, I am unable to detect what type of enhancement Dr. Octavius now has.”

Enhancement was one way to put it. Whatever Dr. Octavius had provided him with 4 large mechanical appendages that protruded out of his back. They all seemed to be working in tangent with one another, two of them allowing him to move along the ground, while the other two carried on their assault. Tony watched as Peter scrambled up a building, only for Dr. Octavius to use the appendages to easily climb up behind him. It reminded him way too much of the Iron Spider suit Tony had created for the kid. He could only hope that his creation wasn’t what had inspired or helped Dr. Octavius create his own.

“FRIDAY, connect me to the kid immediately, override 972.”

“Hey,” Peter’s voice came through immediately, he was breathing heavily. Tony could practically hear his quick movements, the woosh of the air around him. “Kinda busy.”

“Yeah, I can see that. I’m coming to help you, kid. I’m trying to see if anyone’s closer. What happened?”

“Uh, so -” A loud crashing sound echoed in the room before Peter could finish. On the screen in front of him, Peter was thrown through a window of an office building and out of the camera’s view. Tony was moving, taping his nanite casing on his chest, already out the door before the suit was even formed. “Pete??”

In a split second, he was airborne, FRIDAY already charting a course.

A wet cough and a loud groan were Peter’s first response, before clearing his throat. “Shit, that really hurt.”

Without visuals of the fight, Tony had his imagination to fill in the blanks. His HUD fed him enough information, Peter’s vitals sat in the corner, heart rate skyrocketing to an alarming degree. “I’m on my way, Pete. FRIDAY says 30 minutes but you know I’m going to beat that record tonight.”

Instead of a reply, Tony heard the sounds of movement, of a long groan. “He won’t stop,” Peter wheezed out. “Shit, Tony. He’s not stopping, the experiment, he lost, ugh, dammit!”

“Don’t worry about that, just get yourself out of the situation. I’m coming right now, Pete. I promise.”

“He lost control and he’s no-” He was cut off with a loud mechanically whirring sound before an eerie silence took its place.

Peter was taking a semester internship with Dr. Octavius, something Tony had encouraged the entire way. Letting Peter branch out and away from Stark Industries was a good thing, he knew he couldn't keep a genius like Peter all to himself. Tony had only met Octavius a few times, didn’t know the man particularly well. He was retired, after all, and tried as best he could to avoid networking. 

Something had happened in Octavius’ lab, something that creeped Peter out enough for him to reach out to Tony about it. He was iffy on the details, hemmed and hawed about it, holding back just enough information that Tony didn’t get the full picture. Whatever Octavius was trying to do, Peter didn’t think it was all too ethical. He was worried, he insisted, that it was going to hurt more than help.

Tony listened, like usual, offered up some advice on dealing with the situation, but didn’t press too hard. Peter was a little stressed, he was burning the candle at both ends and Tony didn't want to add any more to it. 

Now he wished he would have tried a little harder, maybe he would have noticed something going on. Not that he didn’t trust Peter’s judgment, but sometimes the kid saw too much of the good in people, saw their potential instead of their immediate threat. He thought the kid was just nervous about morals and ethics, not Octavius turning into a supervillain and launching an attack.

And now, Peter was most definitely paying for it, in the most horrifying way possible.

“We’ve lost contact with Spider-man’s suit, sir. Communication is no longer available. I am however still connected to Karen and can monitor his vitals.”

“Pull up whatever video feed you can find of the fight. Reach out to Wilson, Barnes, and Strange, see if you can get someone there right now. Try everything you can do to get communications open again.”

A video came up a second later, this one was a little closer than the news feed had been. The fight had moved back outside of the building, Dr. Octavius had Peter by the shoulder with one of the mechanical claws. From the view, he could see the pinchers biting into the skin of Peter’s shoulders, as Dr. Octavus held him out of the window he’d just sent him crashing through moments earlier.

Peter was still moving, still fighting back with his entire body. Using the arm not being held, he shot out a web, it connected somewhere off camera and Peter pulled himself free of the grasp. Tony shuttered at the sight of the pincher still holding bits of Peter’s suit, and most likely some of Peter’s skin too. 

Dr. Octavius didn’t stop, didn’t give Peter a second to catch his breath, instead charging at the kid as he balanced on the street lamp. The video footage was shaky, Tony couldn’t get a clear image of the kid, but he knew Peter had to be getting exhausted, his vitals were all over the place. 

“Give me something, FRI.”

“Barnes and Wilson are currently in DC and are taking the Quinjet to the city as we speak. Estimated time is 45 minutes. Dr. Strange is currently unavailable at this moment as is Mr. Wong. I am reaching out to several other individuals, but it appears you will arrive the earliest in 23 minutes.”

“Make it 15 minutes, FRI. Try to get me a better visual. If you have to steal a satellite, then do it. I want the best feed you can possibly give me.”

The boosters on his suit kicked it up, he could feel himself going faster, but it wasn’t going to be fast enough, not with how relentless Dr. Octavius appeared to be. 

“I’ve commandeered an Oscorp drone, sir. Footage will be available momentarily.”

A heartbeat later, drone footage filled up a good portion of his HUD. It was the clearest footage he’d seen yet and finally gave him a much better visual on his kid.

Favoring his right leg, he stood a little lopsided with his left arm wrapped protectively over his stomach. The suit was tattered in many places, large rips where the pinches had grabbed on and tore both suit and flesh. His shoulder was by far the worst looking of those injuries, almost his entire shoulder was bare, showing off a gruesome gash that poured blood down his arm. One of the overly large eyes on the suit was completely blacked out, hairline cracks somewhere. Not standing for any longer, Peter leaped into the air to avoid one of the appendages, landing somewhere out of the drone's view. His reaction times were getting slower, still faster than the average person, but Tony could tell he wasn’t at his best.

“FRIDAY, injury list.”

“I am no longer able to communicate directly with Karen, the suit has received a lot of damage. However before I lost communications, she informed me that Peter has a broken left leg, his left shoulder is dislocated, there appear to be several broken ribs as well. Those are currently the worst of his injuries."

The city was getting closer, growing from tiny buildings into large ones. Tony’s attention was completely focused on the drone feeds, trusting FRIDAY to get him there safely. Peter had been right, Dr. Octavius was relentless in his attacks. While Peter had to do a lot of movement, the mechanical claws did nearly all of the exertion for Dr. Octavius, leaving him not looking even remotely fatigued from it all. 

Peter was always moving, jumping, and trying his best to swing from place to place. The area around the fight seemed to be clear of most people, but Peter seemed to focus on keeping Dr. Octavius in a small area. There were no offensive attacks from the kid, he was running on complete defense. 

A split second change of direction from one of the mechanical arms caught Peter by surprise, managing to stab him in his stomach. Tony let out a gasp, watching as crimson bloomed over the spot, the claw covered in blood, moving back for another attack.

“Come on, kid.” Tony chanted over and over, watching as Peter moved away from the second attack, but just barely. His kid was losing right now and Tony had a front row seat to the horrors. “I’m coming kid, I promise, I’m coming.” 

“Ten minutes out, sir.”

Scrambling up the side of one of the taller buildings, Peter’s movements were lethargic, his body slipping as if it was too tired to stick like it normally would. The blood that trailed behind him looked like paintbrush strokes over the glass windows of the building. He was losing a lot of blood, both from the stomach wound and the one on his shoulder. His vitals were plummeting, as was the pit in Tony’s stomach. 

Octavius was behind him, hot on his heels, the mechanical legs doing a better job of crawling up the building. 

He was so, so, so close when it happened. 

It was like Peter’s body had just given up and he went completely limp. He started to slide down the building but before he could fall, Dr. Octavius was there. A claw managed to grab the kid’s ankle easily pulling him off the building and holding him aloft. For several terrifying moments, Tony thought Peter was dead. That something happened and he was watching Dr. Octavuis flinging around Peter’s dead body.

“FRIDAY?!” Tony screamed, eyes unable to tear away and look at the kid’s vitals. He refused to, couldn’t bear to look for confirmation.

“He’s alive, sir. He may have passed out due to his injuries.”

Tony breathed loudly, his heart skyrocketing as he watched Dr. Octavius continued his climb, Peter’s body slamming itself into the windows. He was being so careless with Tony’s kid, it made his blood boil. Watching as Dr. Octavius finished his climb on the roof of the building, Tony’s heart was in his throat, as he dangled Peter over the edge by his ankle. Tony was so close he could see the figures without the help of the drone.

“Will he survive if he falls?” Tony asked immediately, he felt like someone threw a bucket of ice water over him. This was a scene he’d seen before, once with Pepper, once with himself, and then once with Rhodey. 

“If he is unable to catch himself, he will not survive a fall at that height,” FRIDAY confirmed Tony’s worst fears. If the kid would wake up, he could save himself with his webs, the only hope that Tony had left.

But then that hope was completely crushed in a matter of seconds, as a pair of the mechanical claws clenched around Peter’s wrists, destroying his web-shooters. 

And then, everything happened in slow motion. 

Tony could see the exact moment Dr. Octavius let go. The mechanical pinchers easing off their grip of Peter’s ankle until nothing was holding him in the air, nothing keeping him safe. Tony watched in horror as Peter plummeted down from 400 feet in the air. The drone tried to keep up with the rate at which Peter was falling but it couldn’t, he was falling too fast. Tony screamed into his HUD, screamed into the emptiness around him, his voice echoing into the silence. Was Peter awake right now too? Was he screaming Tony’s name? Was he crying out for help, knowing no one would be able to help him?

Tony was a man of science. It didn’t matter if he lived in a world of superheroes, physics-defying shields, and magic, science was always going to be important. Someone falling as far as Peter was, as fast as he would be going, there was just no way to catch him. He’d risk killing both of them on the impact their bodies would have alone. It was just physics, simple as that.

He wished science was wrong sometimes.

But it wasn't.

It was a sick twist of fate, that he’d been in this position once before. He told Peter he’d catch him then and he planned on doing so, with the aid of the Iron Spider suit. But hadn’t actually caught Peter that time either. The Iron Spider suit did all the work and even then, Peter still got on the ship, still went into space, still got dusted.

He didn’t have the Iron Spider suit this time, but he did have his emergency backup suit available. It would get to Peter, it wouldn’t stop his fall but it would provide something for the landing. It was the only thing Tony could do, even if it was a fruitless attempt.

“FRIDAY,” Tony begged, his voice suddenly feeling hoarse and broken. “Deploy the emergency backup suit onto Peter right now.”

It was a Hail Mary if he’d ever had one. “Will he survive the fall with the suit?”

Tony didn’t want to know the answer to the question, but he had to ask. He had to be prepared for what he was about to find. The suit was quick, it was already deployed from a section of his current suit, moving to intercept Peter. The nanites wouldn’t do damage when they enveloped him.

“There is a 30% chance of survival with the deployed suit, sir. If immediate medical help can be acquired the percentage will go up significantly.”

The suit formed around Peter mere seconds before he hit the ground with a loud thud. Tony didn’t want to see it, didn’t want to watch but he couldn’t look away. He landed on the ground less than a second after Peter had.

If the world slowed down for Peter’s fall, it went in fast forward after.

FRIDAY started to rattle off information, when his medical team would arrive, what he should do but Tony ignored all of it. Instead, he reached out a shaky hand for Peter’s face, the suit’s nanite mask melting away, he gripped the Spider-man mask and pulled it off. 

Peter looked peaceful, almost scarily so, as if he was just sleeping. A stark difference against the reality of the situation, his face was slack, eyes closed, mouth slightly open. He was pale but there was blood coming from somewhere around his forehead, running rivets down the side of his face. Tony placed his palm against Peter’s cheek, his skin was cool to the touch but more important he could feel the kid still breathing.

He was alive.

“Injuries?” 

“Several, sir. The worst injuries include a lower spinal fracture, fractures in both the right and left legs, a severe concussion and the puncture wound along with the fall resulted in a ruptured spleen.”

Tony’s heart was somewhere in his throat, he had to fight the urge to pick the kid up and hold him. Instead, he kept his hand on Peter’s face, trying to give him some type of reassurance. A moment went by and to Tony’s surprise, Peter let out a little moan, his eyes fluttering open briefly. 

“Pete?” Tony leaned down, so he was closer to Peter’s face. How was his kid even conscious right now? “It’s okay, you’re going to be okay. I’ve got you.”

“T’ny?”

“Yeah, kid. I’m here, I’ve got you.”

Slipping back into unconsciousness, Peter’s body went completely lax. It didn’t matter, Tony kept talking, a mantra over and over as if saying it meant it had to be real. “It’s okay, it’s okay…”

“Sir, SHIELD Medical is approaching the scene right now. I advise you to allow them to treat Peter.”

Tony didn’t move an inch, not even when four Agents were standing and kneeling beside him. None of them asked him to move, instead, they seemed to work around him. They moved like a well-oiled machine, removing parts of the Iron Man suit, parts of Peter’s suit until they could access the broken kid underneath.

The world continued to speed around them, as Tony sat hands desperately trying to clutch at some part of his kid, as the medics worked around him. In the blink of an eye, they went from a crater in the middle of the sidewalk, to a Quinjet and then finally, to the Compound.

The world didn’t slow down again until Tony was standing in the hallway of the medical, still in his suit, covered in his kid’s blood.

~*~

Tony wasn’t so much avoiding Peter’s hospital room, he was just too busy, really. There was a steady stream of people who visited him, including May who rarely left the room. He wasn’t a complete monster, he went a few times but with Peter in a medically induced coma, there wasn’t much to do but sit and look at him.

Looking at Peter, seeing him lying peacefully in bed, wires everywhere, machines breathing for him, braces on both legs… it was all just a painful reminder of how Tony did not catch him, couldn’t save him in time. 

Peter would recover and would be back to normal soon. Cho didn’t suspect there would be any lasting damage, but until Peter woke up, they weren’t 100% sure. Tony’s Hail Mary saved the day, according to her, lessening the impact just enough to avoid being killed on impact.

Didn’t really make Tony feel any better.

Life was clearly trying to teach Tony some kind of lesson now. Watching Pepper and Rhodey fall wasn’t enough, he now had to add Peter to that ongoing nightmare. Every time he closed his eyes, all he could see was Peter plummeting to his death as Tony uselessly stood to the side and watched.

He wasn’t there for Peter being taken out of the coma, or when the ventilator came off a few days later. He listened to Cho’s report, nervously drumming his fingers on the table until the words “not paralyized” and “full recover” came out of her mouth. It was only then did he finally breath. 

He wandered in a few times, mostly when he knew Peter was sleeping, always acting as if he was surprised at the sight.

Fooling absolutely no one, May refused to let him loiter around and avoid seeing Peter, who apparently had been asking for him. Eventually, he relented, as May all but forced him into Peter’s hospital room.

Sitting up in the bed, eating jello, Peter looked good. Better than what Tony had imagined in his nightmares for the last few weeks. The casts were off both legs, no more wires or ventilators, no more blood on his face, cuts, or bruises.

He didn’t look like he nearly plummeted to his death.

“Hi,” Peter chripped at him around a spoonful of jello. Removing the spoon from his mouth, he gestured to the vacant chair. “Are you gonna actually stay and talk to me?”

Tony moved on autopilot, finding himself sitting in the chair, pulling it across the floor until he was close enough to touch Peter if he wanted to. “Hey, kid. How are you doing?”

“I’m good,” he said with a shrug. “Helen said I could leave next week, as long as I can walk without falling on my butt. Gotta do some physical therapy before I’m back to 100% but I’ll get there.”

“Good, good. I’m glad.”

“And that’s all thanks to you, you know that right? I mean, I don’t remember much of what happened but I do know that without the suit, I woulda been a bug on a windshield.”

“Still,” Tony kept going, he hated unloading on the kid but he couldn’t help it. “I let you fall, I couldn’t get there in enough time to catch you.”

“I prefer if we said that I sauntered vaguely downwards,” Peter joked, a slight smile on his face. The kid could deflect like the best of ‘um.

“Don’t joke,” Tony said weakly, he wasn’t ready to make this a joke just yet. It was all still too real, still felt like it happened a few minutes ago, not weeks.

“Joking is what we do!” Peter exclaimed. “Joking is how I deal with this and I know it’s how you deal with it too.”

Tony tried to open his mouth to say something, to say that he couldn’t joke anymore, not when he could see Peter falling every time he closed his eyes. 

Holding up the spoon, he spoke with a serious look on his face. “Nuh-uh, you’ve given me endless speeches, now it’s my turn, okay?”

The grin on Tony’s face was unintentional, closing his mouth he gave Peter a gesture to continue. He was itching to see the kind of speech the kid thought he could pull off. 

“Okay good. Now listen, I know you think you didn’t do well enough which is why you haven’t come to weep at my bedside yet. But I’m not mad okay? I’m not mad at all, you did everything you could and just because you couldn’t catch me, means nothing. You still saved my life just like I knew you always would. You did everything you could and I’m grateful for it. I know you will always have my back, literally.”

“Yeah, but,” Tony started, ready to counter the argument but Peter held up the spoon again.

“No buts! I don’t want to hear any buts from you, okay? We don’t know what’s gonna happen to any of us at any time but I know you’ll save me no matter what. We survived a giant purple grape from space and you invented time travel. I know you will always save me.” Yawning, Peter leaned back down in the bed some more. “How do you do this whole speech thing? It’s exhausting.”

Laughing for the first time in a while, Tony leaned in closer, putting his hand on Peter’s arm. Peter’s speech wasn’t going to squash the nightmares, but he did feel a little better. Something that’d been squeezing his heart seemed to let go. He really didn’t deserve the kid, Peter was so much better than him. 

“I’ve got a lot of practice, you seem to get into trouble pretty nonstop and Morgan wants to be just like her big brother when she grows up.”

Rolling his eyes, Peter huffed. “Would you believe that what happened for once, wasn’t actually my fault? I did not go look for trouble, the trouble legitimately found me, I swear.”

“Oh really? Somehow I find that really hard to believe, but go on, I’m all ears kid.”

Peter opened his mouth and started rambling, despite how tired he sounded. “Right so, Doc Oc, that’s what I’m calling him and no you can’t stop me, was a little intense but not like too much right? But then, he decided to make these mechanical arms…”

Sitting back a little, he smiled, listening to Peter’s story.


End file.
